Excerpt from Elowyn’s introduction

“I’m a college undergrad student at a university located in Portland, Oregon. I’ve always wanted to hear other Chinese adoptees’ stories, so when I saw a flier for my university’s school literary magazine, I decided to finally write about a subject that had always interested me, and that was the Chinese adoptee experience. When I say the Chinese adoptee experience I’m referring to what it’s like to be a Chinese adoptee and all that that involves. Initially I only wanted to hear from other adoptees because that was the subject of my paper, so I originally created just one survey. Soon after sharing my survey with others, it became clear that in order to get the whole picture, I needed to hear from adoptive parents of Chinese adoptees. So I created a second survey just for adoptive parents of Chinese children. I will list my survey questions in the following paragraph, but if you wish to look at the surveys yourself, here are the links: Chinese adoptee survey & adoptive parent survey.”

Anyone with the link can submit a response. I chose not to collect personal information in an effort to provide the necessary privacy for the respondents, so everything was anonymous. I asked that everyone be as descriptive as they like. Many of my questions were open ended. Most were listed as “check all that apply” while almost every question had “other” as an option. This was so everyone’s story could be included. This also allowed a wide array of answers to be recorded. 

Here are a list of questions for the Chinese adoptee survey:

• What is your nationality?

• At what age were you adopted?

• Have you always known you were adopted?

• Are your adoptive family members also of Asian descent?

• What languages are you fluent in?

• Have you traveled back to mainland China after being adopted?

• If you have returned to China, did you travel alone? In a group? With family?

• Do you have any interest in your Chinese background?

• If you are interested in your Chinese background, what inspired you to look into things?

• What steps have you taken to pursue your Chinese background?

• What is something you wish you knew about your past?

• Has being a Chinese adoptee affected your personality or lifestyle?

• Do you have any comments, notes or requests?

Here are the list of questions for adoptive parents:

• Do you have any biological children?

•  Would you return to China?

• At the time of adoption you were _____ (single, divorced, married etc)

• Right now you are ___ (single, divorced, married etc)

• What is your nationality?

• Was it a transracial adoption?

• Do you have other adopted children (from China or elsewhere)?

• How long was the adoption process?

• Did you have any doubts about adoption in general?

• Did you have any worries when you adopted from China?

•  Why did you choose to adopt from China?

• Did you worry the biological family may want the child back?

• How have your views on adoption changed after adopting from China?

• Would you adopt from China again?

• Would you adopt again (from any country)?

• What is something you wish you knew before adopting from China?

• Do you ever think about your child’s biological family?

• I feel comfortable finding my child’s biological family

• What do you think your child’s views on adoption are?

• If you could tell your child’s biological family ONE thing, what would it be?

• Any notes, comments or requests?